Losing to them 1-5 and 2-3 in the final, runners-up Pakistan may have been unable to break the Australian jinx. But no, we are not losers. The tough fight put up by the green shirts at the recently-concluded Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Ipoh, Malaysia, proves that their winning gold at the Asian Games last year was no fluke.
Pakistan’s national sport hockey is on the rise once again. Hitting rock bottom not just once but several times in the recent past—of which ending up eighth at the Beijing Olympics in the 2008 and finishing last in the 2010 World Cup in New Delhi stand out the most—there was only one direction left to move: up! For the Pakistan hockey team it is like phoenix rising from the ashes.
The Pakistan Hockey Federation’s (PHF) visits to the drawing board again and again in the last three years seems to have finally paid off. The national team, not having featured in any event after the Asian Games triumph, was going into the annual Sultan Azlan Shah Cup after a longish break of six months. Various problems, too, had cropped up during this: first it was the Dutch chief coach, Michel van den Heuvel, threatening to leave due to his family’s apprehensions over the security situation in Pakistan, followed by the Asian Games gold-medalist captain fullback Zeeshan Ashraf’s decision to play in important tournaments only thus missing this event, and then several senior players getting in trouble for signing up with the controversial World Series of Hockey (WSH). But all’s well that ends well.
Starting off strong in the 2011 edition when they beat both New Zealand and Korea 4-2, the green shirts soon ran into trouble when they went down 2-3 to Great Britain and 1-5 to Australia. But knowing how to jump over all kinds of hurdles and accepting all kinds of challenges by now, they surprised everyone when they beat traditional rivals India 3-1, to whom they had been losing continuously since last year, to bounce back into the event.
So shocked and demoralised were India by the loss that they lost their next match with New Zealand 7-3. Meanwhile, Pakistan beat hosts Malaysia 3-2 to make it to the final.
The final brought up another chance for us to beat Australia, who had had given us a 5-1 drubbing in the round matches. The Aussies were fought every step of the way. The 2-2 score line at final whistle took the match into extra time where after several failed attempts by both sides, Australia finally scored the golden goal in the 83rd minute to lift the Azlan Shah cup for the sixth time (1983, 1996, 2004, 2005 and 2007). Pakistan, on the other hand, has won the tournament thrice, in 1998, 2000 and 2003. We have also finished as the runners-up in 1983, 1987, 1991, 1994 and 2004, where we lost to Australia in the final in 1983 and 2004. But it was very different this time as we almost beat them, which says a lot for the green shirts and their slow and steady progress towards the top.